THE PRESIDENT: Let me just say a couple of things, and then I know
you have some questions and I'll try to answer a few of them.

First of all, I want to commend Prime Minister Blair and all of his
team for putting on what I thought was one of our best G-8 meetings.
This shows the benefit of these meetings, not just for dealing with the
issues that are in the news now -- Indonesia, India, Pakistan and other
issues that are presently in the news -- but also dealing with the
long-term challenges we face. We did some serious work here on
employment issues, on environmental issues, on crime issues, on dealing
with conversion of computers in all of our countries at the turn of the
century and what kind of challenges will be presented by that and how we
can work together on them. It was a very stimulating, interesting
meeting that will actually have an impact on the lives of the people
that we all represent. So I thought it was quite good, and I felt good
about that.

Secondly, I just had a very, very good meeting with President Yeltsin
in which, once again, he assured me that he was doing his best to ratify
the START II Treaty in the Duma. And we agreed that we wanted to
immediately begin work on START III as soon as the ratification is
secured there. I think all of us, because of the India nuclear tests,
feel an even greater sense of urgency to change the debate again over
nuclear issues toward less, not more; to change the whole direction
here. And I think if we can get early Duma ratification we know pretty
well where we are on a lot of these big START III issues and we'd like
to really get after it and turn this, the nuclear tide, back in the
right direction -- away from more weapons toward fewer ones. So I was
quite encouraged by that.

We still have some areas where we're working with them hard to get
greater results and cooperation, especially in the whole area of
technology transfer to Iran -- and all of you know about that. And we
went over that in some significant detail and I think reached some
understandings which will bear fruit in the days ahead, so I'm hopeful
of that.

Anyway, it was a good meeting. He was in very, very good form,
excited about his new government, proud of them; and seemed to be in as
good a health and good a spirits as I've seen him in quite a long time.

So, questions?

Q Mr. President, Pakistan's Foreign Minister told Reuters that he
was very close to certain his country would conduct a nuclear test. He
told the Associated Press it's not a matter of if, but when. Sir, what
does this do to regional stability? And could this have been avoided
had, for example, Russia and France joined the U.S. in sanctions against
India?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, based on our best information,
it hasn't happened yet. I also saw the Foreign Minister on television
last night making substantially the same statement, but I understand
it's still being debating in the Cabinet.

I understand also that they're under a lot of pressure. You can
only imagine what the pressures might be. But I will say this -- I
still have hopes that the Prime Minister and the Pakistani government
will not go through with a nuclear test. And I believe that we can, the
rest of us who would support that can work with them in a way that meets
their security interests without the test.

Furthermore, I think that over the long run, and indeed before
then, the political, the economic, and the security interests of
Pakistan and Pakistan's standing in the world would be dramatically
increased if they walked away from a test. The whole rest of the world
would think they were stronger and would be profoundly impressed, and I
think it would help us to resolve these issues more if they did not. So
I hope they will not. And if they do, we'll cross that bridge when we
come to it.

Now, do I think that the result would be different if everyone had
as hard a line on this as we do? I can't really say that. I think if
you go back and look at the statement we've put out here, this is a --
everybody condemned the Indian action, including countries that were
very close to India. And every country said their relations would be
affected by it. And when I came here, that's the most I thought we
could get, because there are lots of countries in the world that
basically are opposed to sanctions under almost all circumstances, and
except under rare cases when the U.N. votes for them. So we just have a
different view on that.

I'm glad that we've done what we've done, even though I have
enormous admiration for India's democracy and for its progress in the
last several years. But all I can tell you is I'm going to do what I
can to get this back on track. I hope that Pakistan won't test. I
think it will help us to get it back on track, and I think it will help
Pakistan immeasurably in the world community and it will have, I
believe, specific political, economic, and security benefits to the
country if it does not test.

So I'll keep working on it.

Q Mr. President, if sanctions aren't possible, are there any other
specific actions you want these other countries to take when they go
home?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, for one thing, I think a lot of countries
are taking economic action. Japan is, Canada is, a number of European
countries are. The European Union is going to have to debate this. I
think that's one of the reasons that Prime Minister Blair, who otherwise
took quite a hard line here with us -- he was quite good on the language
of the resolution -- but I think that he thinks, as head of the EU, he
has to give all these other countries the chance to be heard. I think a
number of European countries will take economic actions here.

And I think that we just have to -- we're going to have to work
this situation to turn it back around, because what you don't want is
the -- insofar as possible the best of all worlds would be that this is
an isolated event and then India signs the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty; then Pakistan says it will sign if India does, so they sign.
That would be the best conceivable result.

The worst conceivable result would be for everybody that's ever
worked on this to think they ought to conduct some sort of test and that
this is now -- it's sort of the new measure of either national security
or national greatness. That's a terrible signal for the rest of us to
send the world, especially when the Russians and we are doing our very
best to put everything in the opposite direction and to reduce the
number of nuclear weapons in the world.

So we just have to -- I'm going to spend a lot of time thinking
through this and coming up with an affirmative strategy to try to deal
with all the elements of it and all the aspects of the problem. And in
the meantime, I hope that Pakistan will find the strength necessary to
walk away from a test.

Q Mr. President, there's new evidence that the Chinese government
funneled money into the American election campaign. Did you or anybody
in your administration make decisions based on the influence of Chinese
money?

THE PRESIDENT: No.

Q And what do you feel about that evidence?

THE PRESIDENT: For one thing, first of all, I understand there's
a new allegation about that -- I have two things to say about it. First
of all, all the foreign policy decisions we made were based on what we
believed -- I and the rest of my administration -- were in the interests
of the American people.

Now, if someone tried to influence them, that's a different issue
and there ought to be an investigation into whether that happened. And
I would support that. I have always supported that. But I can tell you
that the decisions we made, we made because we thought they were in the
interests of the American people.

Q -- the Chinese in your visit?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to see -- when I get back home, I
want to see, number one, what is the substance of this, how serious is
it, what are the facts, what evidence is there. Is this just somebody
saying, or is there some reason to believe there is objective evidence
to support this. But in any case I think the investigation ought to
proceed, and then whatever the facts are, we'll take appropriate action
at the time.

Q You mentioned President Yeltsin giving you assurances on START
II ratification. He's done that in the past several times.

THE PRESIDENT: He has, but one of the things he pointed out this
time is he said this thing is now in the Duma, it's actively being
considered, there are a lot of committees working on it, and that he
will, obviously, not only push for its ratification, but argue that it
ought to be considered in an even more timely fashion now because of the
Indian test.

Q Will you go to Moscow only if it is ratified, or do you have
assurances now --

THE PRESIDENT: I think it ought to be ratified because then we
can get more business done. We can't really do anything on START III
until START II is ratified. And I'm hoping that it will. And I'd like
to leave it there. I'd like to leave it there.

Q How long would it take to ratify START III?

THE PRESIDENT: I don't know. But I think -- but, actually -- I
think START III could be done in fairly short order because we have been
-- Boris Yeltsin and I have been talking about these issues for years
now, and I think we know what the parameters of our two positions are,
what our national security considerations are. And so I would expect
that it could be done fairly quickly once we get START II out of the
way.